California Indie Travel Guide

Watch just a little TV or a few movies and you can feel like you know what to
expect when you get to California, but there is much more to this enormous western
state than you'll ever see on a screen. Los Angeles, Orange County, and
San Diego anchor the highly populated region of Southern California while San
Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose do their own kind of business in the north.

California is twice the size of Great Britain and the landscape more varied than
you can imagine. Most of the population is nestled against the white sandy beaches,
but mountains are never far away, particularly in the northern part of the state.
Most of the southeastern part is covered in dramatic desert landscapes and Northern
California contains some of the most famous forests in the world, including Big
Sur.

The two best-known cities are Los Angeles (including Hollywood) and San Francisco,
but they are very different from one another. Los Angeles goes on forever and
includes the finest beaches, movie studios, and thrill rides the state has to
offer, while San Francisco is the capital of culture and has a distinctly European
feel to it.

Getting There

California is filled with airports, but the most popular for long-haul
flights are the enormous Los
Angeles International and the also-busy San
Francisco International. If you are coming from somewhere else in North America
it's also possible to get good deals into San Diego, Orange County, Long
Beach, Burbank and Ontario in the south and Oakland and San Jose in the north.

Where To Stay

Needless to say, there are thousands of hotels
in California and since the state is so spread out you should take
special care of exactly where you want to spend time. In the last decade or so
there have been quite a few more hostels
in California coming available so traveling on a shoestring is easier than
ever before.

Unless you are planning on staying only within San Francisco, you'll likely
want to rent a car for your
California visit. Fortunately they tend to be reasonably priced, especially for
weeklong rentals beginning at airports.